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The Obama Administration keeps insisting that it will never allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons, but Israel is growing increasingly concerned that the Washington has in fact resigned itself to the idea of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Recently, an Obama-linked think tank issued a report suggesting that there was little to fear from a nuclear Iran. One of the concerns should Iran successfully build a nuclear weapon is that ever major Middle East nation will then rush to field its own atomic bombs, turning the region into even more of a powder keg than it already is.

But the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) stated that "conventional wisdom is probably wrong," and an Iranian bomb will not produce a Middle East nuclear arms race. Again, Israel is being asked to risk its survival on "maybe."

Adding to local consternation was the fact that the recent break down of talks between Iran and international nuclear inspectors resulted in the US and fellow world powers lessening their demands on the Islamic Republic.

A new proposal asks only that Iran promise to stop enriching uranium in return for a significant reduction in sanctions. Gone is the demand that Iran actually dismantle its main uranium-enrichment facility.

At the same time, London's Daily Telegraph reports that Iran is prepping a second path to attaining nuclear weapons with the activation of a heavy water plant at Arak. The plant could potentially produce enough plutonium to build nuclear bombs.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was high time the international community take off its kid gloves in dealing with Iran.

"Like North Korea, [Iran] continues to defy all the international standards and I believe that this requires the international community to ratchet up its sanctions and make clear that if this continues there will be also a credible military sanction," said the Israeli leader.

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